Food

We feed a premium grade vet-recommended dry food called ‘Royal Canin’.Link to Australian Royal Canin page We have fed this food since 2000 and have been really happy with it for two reasons. Firstly, the dogs love it, so it must taste pretty good! Secondly, our dogs look really healthy when they have been on this diet for a few weeks. They have shiny coats, clear eyes and healthy breath. In fact, a lot of customers ask us what we have been feeding their dog(s) because they are looking so healthy upon their return home.

How often do you feed?

Standardly we feed once per day in the morning but we do offer you the choice to add second feeds for a small daily fee. link to price page In this case, we would feed your dog half their daily serves in the morning and then the other half in the evening before bedtime.

Quite a few people request this option, feeling that it will keep with the routine their dog is used to at home.

What do you do if my dog doesn’t like your food?

Occasionally we will have a pet guest who decides they don’t like the dry food alone. In this situation we have a number of tasty treats and food enhancers to add to the dry food that gets even the most reluctant eater going. Some examples are liver treat sprinkles, sardines, Nature’s Gift tinned food, cheese, gravy.

Can I send my dog’s own food from home?

We are happy for you to send along your dog’s own food from home. Some of our customers do this through choice as they like to prepare their dogs meals and some do so due to their dog’s food allergies. Either way we are happy to feed your dog whatever you send along. Note – there is a $1.00 per serve handling fee of food from home. If you do send along your own food from home, please make sure to advise us what amount of the dry you usually serve and if it is a fresh food, it will need to be bagged into individual serving portions. This way we can easily defrost one bag at a time.

We would also suggest that you send along a bit extra in case your dog requires extra food. This may happen from the expending of more energy than usual.

It is not always necessary but we feel it is better to have a little bit extra on hand rather than not enough. We keep a track of your dog’s weight during their stay and we let this guide us as to whether or not to increase, decrease or stick with the same amount being served.

Can I send along my dog’s own treats?

We often hear of dogs having lost a lot of weight whilst in a pet resort or dog kennel so you are not alone if this has been your experience. It is obviously heart breaking to come home from a great holiday to find your dog looking thin and miserable. What makes this situation worse is that it is often a vet-recommended, professional looking place that you have visited and inspected beforehand that ends up with this result.

It doesn’t make sense when everything about the establishment looks professional and all the people you have spoken to have been friendly and reassuring. Even your vet suggested you use the place!

So why then does a dog end up thin?

There are a number of reasons

Dog stacking/companion boarding (where dogs from different homes are put into the one kennel space) is the main reason dogs lose weight in a pet resort/dog boarding kennel. What happens is that the more dominant bossy dog is the one that gets most of the food whilst the more gentle natured softy dog gets the left overs, if any. Places that dog stack will assure you that they stay present for feeding but this only works when both dogs eat at the same quick rate. If one of the dogs is more of a graze eater (has a little bit to eat all through the day), it will certainly miss out on its fair share.

At Akuna Pet Resort, each dog has its own individual hotel room so they don’t have another dog nicking their tucker!

Dogs are not weighed when they are checked in or throughout their stay which means

They don’t know the exact amount a dog should be fed in the first place, instead taking a guess by how big or small they look.

They don’t keep a record of how that dog’s weight progresses throughout their holiday stay. This means they don’t know if the dog is gaining or losing weight.

No record is kept of how the dog is eating, so even if a staff member notices that a dog is losing weight, they don’t know how much more they should be feeding.

We believe that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’, so at Akuna Pet Resort we weigh every dog when they arrive and then regularly throughout their stay. We also keep a daily record of how much your dog has eaten, so we can match the weight to food and adjust the portion size as necessary. Consequently we send our furry guests home the same healthy weight at which they arrived.

The dog doesn’t fancy the food being fed so doesn’t eat much of it. Most places go with the ‘like it or lump it’ approach but at Akuna Pet Resort we have a number of yummy food enhancers to add to a dog’s premium dry food (if they are not eating enough to maintain a good weight). Some of these enhancers are liver sprinkles, sardines, Nature’s Gift tinned food, chicken, gravy, cheese etc.

Not eating is sometimes a way for a dog to show that it is unhappy. In a pet resort/kennel environment, this may be because they are at a place that is loud and cold with a strange dominant dog in their room and not much human company either. At Akuna Pet Resort, we work really hard at making sure your dog is happy – by providing an environment where they feel safe and comfortable (in their own hotel room and grass garden yard), where noise is minimised through the design of the complex so it sounds more like a country resort than a rock concert. A place where a person pops in and out of your dog’s hotel room throughout the day doing various tasks such as feeding, pooper scooping, health checks, fresh h20 etc., where your dog is warm at night due to a well-insulated hotel room, a comfy trampoline bed and a polar fleece blanket. Radio music also provides a comforting sound from home.

We have designed our “care packages” and extra options to offer you a wide variety of choice in how much fun one-to-one loving human time you would like to organise for your dog. In addition, your dog has the enjoyment of saying ‘Hi’ to their dog neighbours or just doing a little bit of sun baking any time of the day from 7am to 7pm out in their own grass garden yard.

Happy dog = Happy Holiday!

Even with all the above in place, we will sometimes have a pet guest who is simply anxious and unsure of their new environment, particularly on the first day. If this is the case you can rest assured that we take the time to sit with your dog and be loving and talk sweet baby talk and offer treats until we have convinced them that this is a good place to be. A place full of dog loving people! All the happy dog faces on our Guest book breed pages can attest to this.

My dog puts on weight really easily so I don’t want him to be overfed. Can you make sure this doesn’t happen?

We sure can! The reason we can assure you of this is that we board all our pet guests individually in their own hotel room so they don’t get to eat anyone else’s food. Pet resorts that board dogs together in the one accommodation place end up with overweight dogs (and thin dogs) due to the more food motivated dog eating everyone else’s share. (Often a Labrador!) In addition to this, we keep a record of how a dog’s weight is going during their holiday stay relative to how much food they are being served. This means that if your dog starts to put on weight we will know about it and cut down on their serve size.

If you feel your dog is prone to putting on weight, let us know before his/her holiday stay so we can pay particularly close attention to this. We are even known for getting some unwanted weight off a dog, so if this is something you would like, let us know your dog’s ideal weight and we can aim for this during their holiday stay with us.